Brief Bio of Hammond:

Director of the Sketch Recognition Lab and Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University, Dr. Hammond is an international leader in activity recognition (focusing on eye, body, and sketch motions), haptics, intelligent fabrics, SmartPhone development, and computer human interaction research. Dr. Hammond’s publications on the subjects are widely cited and have well over a thousand citations, with Dr. Hammond having an h-index of 18, an h10-index of 26, and four papers with over 100 citations each. Her research has been funded by NSF, DARPA, Google, and many others, totaling over 3.6 million dollars in peer reviewed funding. She holds a PhD in Computer Science and FTO (Finance Technology Option) from MIT, and four degrees from Columbia University: an M.S in Anthropology, an M.S. in Computer Science, a B.A. in Mathematics, and a B.S. in Applied Mathematics. Prior to joining the TAMU CSE faculty Dr. Hammond taught for five years at Columbia University and was a telecom analyst for four years at Goldman Sachs. Dr Hammond is the 2011-2012 recipient of the Charles H. Barclay, Jr. '45 Faculty Fellow Award. The Barclay Award is given to professors and associate professors who have been nominated for their overall contributions to the Engineering Program through classroom instruction, scholarly activities, and professional service. Dr. Hammond has been featured on the Discovery Channel and other news sources.
Dr. Hammond is dedicated to diversity. She focuses a significant amount of her efforts on improving diversity in computer science, and published an award winning paper at FIE on the topic. She regularly sends 5-10 students yearly to Tapia and Grace Hopper, and has presented herself three times at Grace Hopper and Tapia, including mentoring workshops to junior faculty and undergraduates. She has recently founded a non profit organization, Wired Youth, with her graduate student Stephanie Valentine, teaching cybercitizen and computer science skills to young girls.